AuthorTopic: The Luminous Landscape (Read 1737 times)

fredjeang

I've been consulting this site for a long time now, although I'm new in the forum.Since then, Something caught my attention, and many questions are strongly growingin my mind.

Why the industry is NOT listening to what competent people claim for ages, here, and in othersserious photographic websites?I wanted to call this post something like "Will Canon's mirror lock-up saga end one day?", because itis one thing that Michael has been asked on and on in TLL, so it became an icon.

Many commercial (and technical) mistakes could have been avoided if the Industry would have taken into considerationmany of the articles that have been written here by Michael or others...Or, is it that this industry is actually in the hand of uncompetent marketing departements that do notuse a camera? And all these tons of articles, reflexions, etc... are available...for free!! All they have to do is open the website and read. But we see something else. In fact, Mark Dubovoy in a recent post perfectly resumed this fact in a word that sounded like a sentence:

"Unfortunately, all too often camera manufacturers tend to ignore this kind of invaluable input. For example, how many times have you read Michael and others complaining about the lack of a mirror up mode in Canon professional cameras? And what has Canon done? Nothing."

Maybe Leica would have made a real commercial bomb if its X1 would have been Full Frame at the same price, but I'm afraid theyignored "date of birth" and competency . Examples like this abound.

It is a little bit frustrating. Keeping Mark's article further, an interesting commentary: "I even met with some top Leica executives and marketing/sales people at the PMA show in Las Vegas to encourage them in the strongest of terms not to do this. They totally dismissed me, they were simply not interested. I know for a fact that a number of other people complained about the same issue and Leica turned a deaf ear. Therefore, I was glad and sad at the same time when I read Michaelís S2 review and noticed that he did not like the lens hoods either."

Is it possible that the industry is in the hand of condescending and uncompetent executives? Or is the problem much more complex according to you.

I've been consulting this site for a long time now, although I'm new in the forum.Since then, Something caught my attention, and many questions are strongly growingin my mind.

Why the industry is NOT listening to what competent people claim for ages, here, and in othersserious photographic websites?I wanted to call this post something like "Will Canon's mirror lock-up saga end one day?", because itis one thing that Michael has been asked on and on in TLL, so it became an icon.

Many commercial (and technical) mistakes could have been avoided if the Industry would have taken into considerationmany of the articles that have been written here by Michael or others...Or, is it that this industry is actually in the hand of uncompetent marketing departements that do notuse a camera? And all these tons of articles, reflexions, etc... are available...for free!! All they have to do is open the website and read. But we see something else. In fact, Mark Dubovoy in a recent post perfectly resumed this fact in a word that sounded like a sentence:

"Unfortunately, all too often camera manufacturers tend to ignore this kind of invaluable input. For example, how many times have you read Michael and others complaining about the lack of a mirror up mode in Canon professional cameras? And what has Canon done? Nothing."

Maybe Leica would have made a real commercial bomb if its X1 would have been Full Frame at the same price, but I'm afraid theyignored "date of birth" and competency . Examples like this abound.

It is a little bit frustrating. Keeping Mark's article further, an interesting commentary: "I even met with some top Leica executives and marketing/sales people at the PMA show in Las Vegas to encourage them in the strongest of terms not to do this. They totally dismissed me, they were simply not interested. I know for a fact that a number of other people complained about the same issue and Leica turned a deaf ear. Therefore, I was glad and sad at the same time when I read Michaelís S2 review and noticed that he did not like the lens hoods either."

Is it possible that the industry is in the hand of condescending and uncompetent executives? Or is the problem much more complex according to you.

I suspect they all have much the same reasons as we do for either doing or not doing things. Maybe its too expensive, maybe the total number of requests they get for a particular feature represents a very small percentage of their users, maybe its just more trouble than its worth (in their eyes)....maybe, maybe maybe.

Overall, I think we all agree that manufacturers are doing a decent job, we just wish they would be perfect

Jeremy Payne

These are commercial product companies ... it would be nice to think they exist to serve us ... but they exist to create maximum value for their shareholders.

Obviously, Canon has come to the conclusion that mucking with the design to achieve the desired MLU accessibility isn't worth the hassle ... even if it would make Michael and others happy.

While the high-end is important, it isn't where they make the big money ... so the concerns of niche, high-end users aren't all that commercially relevant in many cases.

That's not to say these guys can't be stupid, deaf or make truly horrendous errors of judgment ... just that if you keep your businessman hat on, sometimes the logic of these product management decisions becomes clear.

I've been a product manager - it is a tough job to keep everyone happy and the product moving forward ... there will always be users and groups of users who think you don't love them as much as you love other constituencies ... and sometimes that's true!

Logged

fredjeang

I've got your points, and agree, in part.The date of X1 commercial birth is one year too late, and that is not a small mistake.Ricoh, who is now in trouble, as made another huge one (according to my modest opignon) with the GRX, not allowing lens mount in the module concept who was in itself revolutionary, and Canon's mirror lock-up access is a kid's game to implement for them without having to reeinvent the wheel.Many many of these things are written here.I think for example that what Michael said about Red cameras is really important. Visionary really! I'm not sure most ejecutives are so aware how important it is.Maybe I'm totally wrong.Let's see what will happen in the future.